avatarZane Dickens the Instigator

Summary

The undefined website provides guidance on the importance of including a writer's bio at the end of articles to engage readers, encourage follows, and promote content, while also offering tips and tools for efficiently creating and inserting these bios.

Abstract

The article emphasizes that a writer's bio at the end of a story is a valuable tool for audience engagement on platforms like Medium. It suggests that linking to one's profile or other stories can lead to increased follows and subscriptions. The piece provides an example of an effective bio, highlighting the use of separators and links to personal websites and subscription pages. It also recommends using a text expander like Magical to save time when inserting bios and promotes the use of preview links to direct readers to other content, including membership opportunities. The author encourages writers to contribute to Microcosm, a publication that welcomes tiny stories with big hearts.

Opinions

  • The editors at Microcosm stress the importance of not missing the chance to connect with readers through a well-crafted bio.
  • The author, Zane Dickens, believes in making it easy for readers to follow or subscribe, suggesting that without a clear call-to-action, engagement opportunities may be lost.
  • The use of a text expander is highly recommended as a time-saving tool for writers, avoiding the inconvenience of searching for pre-written bios in documents.
  • Promoting one's Medium referral link within a bio is seen as a classy way to potentially increase memberships, indicating a strategic approach to self-promotion.
  • The author's opinion on the importance of a writer's bio is reinforced by the invitation to write for Microcosm, showcasing the publication's value for reader and writer connections.

Don’t Leave Out That Writer Bio!

It’s the perfect opportunity to introduce yourself to someone who read to the end.

This is a public service announcement from your editors at Microcosm. We don't want you wasting this opportunity.
Photo by Hannah Olinger on Unsplash

At Microcosm, and many other publications, you can link to your profile or another of your own stories. This gives your readers a nutshell of who you are and encourages another follow or email subscription.

If you don’t ask (or make it easy) you don’t get.

Here’s an example:

Remember to use a separator after your story to avoid confused readers. (Shortcut keys are CMD + Enter or CTRL + Enter. )

Zane Dickens’ stories go bump in the night, ka-boom in space, and roar with adventure in fabled lands. And if he can help it, there’s a streak of humour too.

Get these stories in your inbox 📬

Explanation:

I link my name with @username because hovering gives an easy follow button. Go ahead and try it above or below.

This is the only manual bit with a text expander (mentioned below). I need to type the @Zane Dickens each time to link it properly.

And “Get these…” obviously links to my subscribe link.

Don’t Waste The Opportunity

Your bio is an opportunity for growing your audience in at least two different ways. And you could also share another story as a preview link and if you do it in a classy way, you can promote your Medium referral link too.

This is a preview link:

You could also link to a list of yours:

Ugh that feels like work though

Then try out a text expander like Magical. It’s a chrome extension that you can use to map small shortcuts, for example: “-bio” to your full bio text, with formatting and links.

A massive time saver and you don’t need to hunt around for a bookmarked Google Doc or something. That is a pain. Also, you can save a bunch of different ones for different publications or your own self-publishing.

A useful note to those doing the 💯 Story Challenge as well.

Here’s how to write for Microcosm. We’d love to see your stories.

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